Lore:Horn of Summoning

The Horn of Summoning is an artifact of unknown origin that has been manipulated by some of the most powerful figures in Tamrielic history. The abilities of this item are rather unknown, but has been described as being able to "see one clear" from danger in an awful sense, and far more potent as a weapon than the Staff of Chaos.

History

Legend

High Rock

According to old tales, the Horn of Summoning was used by King Edward of Daggerfall and King Moraelyn of Ebonheart to repel the Nords from High Rock in the early First Era.

From here on, the Horn was passed on from peer to peer. King Edward had kept it himself in Daggerfall, where it was recorded to remain beneath their measureless caverns. In other recordings, the Horn was said to have passed from King Edward to Moraelyn, after that king's death. And later, when Moraelyn himself mate his fate, he passed the thing to his half-brother in Mournhold, Ephen, for safekeeping.

Tiber War

Tiber Septim

During the conquesting days of Tiber Septim's Empire, several battles were fought during his special military operations into Morrowind. In one of these battles, Mournhold is said to have been laid waste.

Tiber had allied himself with a male member of the Ra'athim lineage, who was on the rag-tail end of the family. With the help of this Ra'athim, the Empire recovered the Horn of Summoning; the Horn had been stored in an mithril anvil, erected before an ancient statue dedicated to the ancestor god Ephen, a shrine sorts built within a pocket alcove of Mournhold's mines. Tiber Septim claimed the Horn, but left the powerful Staff of Chaos where it had laid for safeguarding under the watchful eye of General Symmachus. What Septim elected to do with the Horn is entirely unknown.

Through whatever means, the Armistice was subsequently signed by the now-eager Dunmer after "much of Morrowind had been laid waste."

The Ra'athim heir was later rewarded by the Empire, having the fiefdom of Ebonheart bequeathed upon him for supplying his aid during the conflict. Additionally, General Symmachus of the Imperial Army later became the Prime Minister of Mournhold. The Hlaalu of Ebonheart ultimately remained jealous that the Staff's safekeeping was assigned to the rulers in Mournhold, and not to their own fief, and claimed that rightful guardianship of the Staff of Chaos should be entrusted to Ebonheart. Mournhold responded that Moraelyn himself before had placed the Horn in the safekeeping of Ephen whose own bailiwick was Mournhold, and that Mournhold was arguably the god's birthplace, giving them the greater claim to the honor of guardianship.

False Heist

Mournhold

In the late Third Era, Barenziah, Queen of Morrowind, had grown quite disillusioned with her station after centuries of life, and found herself seduced by a common bard known as the Nightingale; who swayed her into going on a quest with him into the Mournhold undercity to recover the mythical Horn of Summoning. However, when the arrived at the Horn's sanctuary, they found that they Horn had been replaced with the Staff of Chaos, which the Nightingale claimed and used to shift himself away from there. Upon reaching Barenziah at the shrine and discussing all that had happened, Symmachus was mock relieved that the Nightingale had the Staff rather than the Horn, as Tiber had truly taken it from Mournhold long ago.

Queen Barenziah later identified the Nightingale to have been Jagar Tharn. However, an alternative account asserts that the bard who stole the Staff of Chaos was actually a master thief named Drayven Indoril, a member of the Nightingale Trinity, and that the truth was covered up on the part of Barenziah to save face.

Fate

The Horn of Summoning was last said to be in the personal property of Emperor Tiber Septim. What ultimately became of it is unknown.

Previous Owners

• Edward
• Moraelyn
• Ephen
• Tiber Septim

Notes

• ^1	The text seems to imply that Tiber needed a member of the Ra'athim bloodline for the statue of Ephen to release what it guards, which is how the Nightingale himself was able to retrieve the Staff of Chaos.

• ^2

  It is likely that installing the rag-tail Ra'athim as ruler of Ebonheart meant displacing previous ruling family. As the lore of Skyrim indicates (via The Nightingales in-game fiction), Jagar Tharn was not in fact the Nightingale as portrayed in The Real Barenziah. Lore from Elder Scrolls Online would also cast doubt on Tharn's Ra'athim lineage. Assuming The Real Barenziah holds at least some matter of accuracy, it is quite possible that Drayven Indoril is descended from Clan Ra'athim based on the Nightingale's dialogue in the novella -- which would explain how the Nightingale was able to attain the Staff of Chaos from the Shrine of Ephen. According to The Real Barenziah edit featured in Morrowind, House Hlaalu now rules Ebonheart, which lines up with the lore of the 1996 Morrowind Development Map and Interview With Three Booksellers.

• ^3

  The Real Barenziah book series was originally published with the release of Daggerfall. It was included again for Morrowind books, but was heavily edited for readability and sometimes lore. The editors seemed to have made a small context error during this process, at the end of The Real Barenziah v V, referring to the Staff of Chaos being handed from Moraelyn to Ephen, instead of the Horn of Summoning being handed from Moraelyn to Ephen, as per the Daggerfall draft. This change doesn't make much sense at all with the provided context, and was more than likely a confused goof on the part of the editor rather than an intentional lore alteration. Though, if it were intentional, the change would have a variety of lore implications.